Histoire des Échanges, Communications, Postes et Territoires / History of the Exchanges, Communications, Post Offices and Territories

The Postal Service, guardian of a French-styled public service, has become, under the influence of Europe, a universal service, and by its history and by its roots in its environment, presents an opportunity to reflect on the manner in which traditional and contemporary societies have resolved the issues of communication, exchanges and control of territories. Thanks to the Committee for the history of the Post-Office, researchers in the humanities and social sciences have been allowed to reflect on its past and to shed light on the changes in the societies linked within its network. Thus, now active for nearly two decades, the committee has encouraged and promoted research on the Postal Service, its «tools/instruments» of exchanges, its diplomatic agents, its politics, economy, culture and even its land settlements, without forgetting its legislative and legal aspects. This series brings together work – doctorates, acts of symposia, biographies, testimonials – in French and in English, that specifically deal with the Post-Office and, more broadly, of the problems of commerce, communications and the control of territories. It is a platform for critical analyses of a world in perpetual motion. All the publications in this collection are subject to double peer review. Gardienne d’un service public à la française devenu, sous l’influence de l’Europe, un service universel, la Poste, par son histoire et par son ancrage dans son environnement, permet de réfléchir sur la façon dont les sociétés traditionnelles et contemporaines ont résolu les questions de communication, d’échanges et de maîtrise des territoires. Grâce au Comité pour l’Histoire de la Poste, il est donné aux chercheurs en sciences humaines et sociales à réfléchir sur son passé et à éclairer les mutations des sociétés qu’elle relie grâce à son réseau. Ainsi, actif depuis plus de deux décennies, le comité suscite et encourage les recherches sur les Postes, « outils/instruments » d’échanges, et aussi agent de la diplomatie, de la politique, de l’économie, de la culture ou encore de l’aménagement des territoires, sans oublier les aspects législatifs et juridiques. Cette collection rassemble les travaux – doctorats, actes de colloques, biographies, témoignages –, en français et en anglais, traitant spécifiquement de la Poste/des postes et, de façon plus large, des problématiques des échanges, des communications et de la maîtrise des territoires. Elle se veut une plateforme d’analyses critiques d’un monde en perpétuel mouvement. Toutes les publications de cette collection sont soumises à une double évaluation à l’aveugle.

14 publications

Critical Studies of Latinxs in the Americas

ISSN: 2372-6830

The Latinx presence continues to grow and intersect with every aspect of life in the 21st century. This is evident when one considers the appointment of Sonia Sotomayor as Associate Justice to the United States Supreme Court. As well as the prominence of distinct Latinx individuals in various spheres of social, cultural, and political life such as Mario J. Molina, Nobel Prize winner and recipient of the Medal of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013; and Jorge Maria Bergoglio (Pope Francis) who has revolutionized the Catholic church since he became the highest ecclesiastical authority of the Catholic world in 2013. Latino Studies, as an academic field of inquiry, began to emerge during the early 1990s surfacing from the more recognized field of Chicano Studies. As such, the major contributions to the field first emerged from Mexican/Chicano scholarship—publications such as Aztlán, the most important journal in the field of Chicano Studies since 1970; Gloria Anzaldúa’’s groundbreaking memoir/essay, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987); George J. Sanchez’s historical account, Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture, and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900-1945 (1995); and the two volumes of The Chicano Studies Reader: An Anthology of Aztlan, 1970-2010. These are a few examples of the consolidation and the continuing development of Chicano Studies in the United States. In the past two decades, Latino Studies have grown and expanded significantly. There have been a large number of publications about Latinxs in the Midwest and North East; in addition, due to the fast-growing population of Latinxs in the area, new scholarship has emerged about the Latinxs in the New South. Some examples of the emerging field of Latino Studies are the Latinos on the East Coast (2015) edited by Yolanda Medina and Ángeles Donoso Macaya, Global Cities and Immigrants (2015) by Francisco Velasco Caballero and María de los Angeles Torres; the Handbook of Latinos and Education (2010) edited by Enrique Murillo, et al.; Angela Anselmo’s and Alma Rubal-Lopez’s 2004 On Becoming Nuyoricans; David Carey Jr. and Robert Atkinson (2009) Latino Voices in New England; Yolanda Prieto’s case study entitled, The Cubans of Union City: Immigrants and Exiles in a New Jersey Community (2009); and Lawrence La Fontaine-Stokes’ Queer Ricans Cultures and Sexualities in the Diaspora (2009). Critical Studies of Latinxs in the Americas will become the counterpart of the aforementioned research about the Latinx diaspora that deserve equal scholarly attention and will add to the academic field of inquiry that highlights the lived experience, consequential progress and contributions, as well as the issues and concerns that all Latinxs face in present times. This provocative series will offer a critical space for reflection and questioning of what it means to be Latinx living in the Americas, extending the dialogue to include the North and South hemispheric relations that are prevalent in other fields of global studies such as Post-Colonial Theory, Post-Colonial Feminism, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Critical Race Theory, and others. This broader scope can contribute to prolific interdisciplinary research and can also promote changes in policies and practices that will enable today’s leaders to deal with the overall issues that affect us all. Topics that explore contemporary inequalities and social exclusions associated with processes of racialization, economic exploitation, health, education, transnationalism, immigration, identity politics, and abilities that are not commonly highlighted in the current literature as well as the multitude of socio-economic, and cultural commonalities and differences among the Latinxs in the Americas will be at the center of the series. As the Latinx population continues to grow and change, and universities enhance their Latino Studies programs to be inclusive of all types of Latinx identities, a series dedicated to the lived experience of Latinxs in the Americas and a consideration of their progress and concerns in the social, cultural, political, economic, and artistic arenas is of incredible value in the quest for pedagogical practices and understandings that apply a critical perspective to the issues facing scholars in this area of study. Scholars, faculties, and students alike will benefit from this series. Expressions of interest for authored or edited books will be considered on a first come basis. A Book Proposal Guideline is available on request. For individual or group inquiries please contact the Series Editors at ymedina@bmcc.cuny.edu & Margarita.MachadoCasas@UTSA.edu.

50 publications

Cinema and Media Cultures in the Middle East

ISSN: 2770-9051

The purpose of this series is to demarcate and critically examine the shifting terrain of film- and media-making in the Middle East, and of practices of film and media studies regarding it, testing them both against their larger, social enabling conditions at the national, regional, and transnational levels. Titles in the series will engage recent developments in the field of Middle East film and media studies and will help point the field in an intellectually meaningful, pedagogically effective direction in relation to both current and, in some cases, significant, previously ignored older work. The series is conceived at a moment during which Middle Eastern film and film criticism have begun to develop in new directions. Recent years have witnessed a modest increase in scholarly engagement with topics and modes of inquiry often previously considered outside academic discourse. A handful of books and special journal issues published in English over the past half-decade, focusing on specific Middle Eastern countries, such as Tunisia, Morocco, Syria, Iran, Palestine/Israel and Turkey, as well as the long-overdue establishment of cinema studies as an emerging field of academic inquiry within universities located in the Arab world indicate a preponderance of previously unproblematized issues now circulating within the field. These include critical questions from queer and transgendered perspectives about the representation of women, and from indigenous and settler-colonial studies perspectives about the representation of migrant workers and refugees, the growing importance of documentary, digital animation and hybrid shooting, the continuing influence of global cinema imperatives, and the revival of interest in militant, revolutionary and third cinema aesthetics.

2 publications